Media Control
Ezra Klein has an Op/Ed in the Los Angeles Times on the media in Presidential campaigns. This graph stuck out as the problem with the media filter.
Who decides which eight seconds? The republicans can not win on the issues so the TV does not report the issues. And it is not just the TV. The Washington Post had four articles on John Edwards in one day. Three articles discussed his hair cuts but none discussed his positions on the issues.
A study by Indiana University telecommunications professors Erik Bucy and Maria Grabe found that from 1968 to 1992, the clips of presidential candidates speaking on network news were cut from an average of one minute to about 10 seconds. Since 1992, that's dropped to eight seconds. Which means that politicians are being filtered through the media lens more than ever. Only a third of those eight-second clips addressed substantive issues of policy. Ask yourself: How much substantive policy do you think you could communicate in eight seconds?
Who decides which eight seconds? The republicans can not win on the issues so the TV does not report the issues. And it is not just the TV. The Washington Post had four articles on John Edwards in one day. Three articles discussed his hair cuts but none discussed his positions on the issues.
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